Portfolio



(No Model) J. N. BROWN.

PORTFOLIO.

No. 284,272. Patented Sept. 4, 18 a.

M i insses;

N, PETERS. mommy-mm. washing, 0 c.

To all whom it may concern:

TUNITED STATESPATENT OFFICE.

JUSTUS NEWTON BROWN, OF OWATONNA, MINNESOTA.

PORTFOLIIO.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 284,272, dated September 4, 1883 Application filed November 8, 1882. (N model.) I

Be it known that I, J USTUS NEWTON BROWN, a citizen of the United States, residing at the city of Owatonna, in the county of Steele, in the State of Minnesota, have invented a new and useful Portfolio, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in I portfolios designed for the reception and orderly preservation of papers, clippings, and memoranda. j v

j The special objects of my invention are, first, to provide such a portfolio as shall be convenient of access and permit a ready inspection of its contents without their removal, as also to adapt the same for the accommodation of papers longer or wider, or both longer and wider, than the space within the portfolio, and to provide for protecting the contents of the port folioby inclosingthe same beneath a covering flap or leaf; secondly, to provide for exposing the contents in front to the fullest possible extent when the same are uncovered, and to offset and compensate for the weakening effect of the reentrant angle by which the former is accomplished, or, in other words, to guard the front of the portfolio against tearing, and at the: same time to increase the flexibility of its iips; I and, thircl1y,;to provide for indexing a series or fileof portfolios with facility, and at the same time for protecting the fold which unites the said covering flap or leaf with the back of the portfolio.

My invention consists in certain 'novel combinations of parts in a portfolio, whereby the respective objects above stated are accomplished, as hereinafter described and claimed.

In the accompanying sheet of drawings, Figure 1 is a plan view of a sheet of suitable paper or other suitable material as cutand prepared ready for folding into a portfolio. Fig. 2 represents the same with its firstfold made. Fig. 3 represents the portfolio complete, with I .l its covering flap or leaf open. I Fig. 4; represents the same closed; and Fig. 5, in connec- I tion with dotted lines in Fig. 1, represents certainmodifications hereinafter set forth.

Like letters of reference indicate correspond- 1 ing partsintheseveral figures.

L represents the said covering flap or leaf M, the inner back of the portfolio 5 N, its outer 0, Figs. 1 and 2, represents a circular or rounded notch at the vertex of the re-entrant angle, formed by the inner edges of said lips S and T and P, Fig.1, a re-enforcingipatch upon the inner surface of the sheet adjacent to said notchi 1, Fig. 1, represents the fold-line common to the flap or leaf Land inner back, M; m, the foldline common to said inner back and the face R, and n the fold-line common to said face R and the outer back, N- Said outer back, N, is broader than the inner back, M, by the width of the margin K, which projects from the same edge of said inner back as the flapor leaf L, as seen in Fig. 4. The series of characters on the index-margin should not extend its entire length. A portion, preferably its upper end, (seen at the bottom in Fig. 2,) is left blank as a permanent portion, co-operating with that portion bearing the upper in- (leX-characters, to support the latter when all save one or a feware cut off, as hereinafter setforth, and to provide for readily pulling the portfolios out of the pigeon-holes in which they are intended to be kept. Said index-characters are placed at regular intervals alike in all the portfolios of any series or set of the same, and all the characters below the .one designating the contents of each portfolio are intended to be cut off, the portfolio having the shortest index-margin being arranged at the left, and so on, each portfolio exposing only the par ticular character which indicates its contents, while in every case the lower character on the index-margin designates the character of the.

contents ofthe portfolio, whether the latter be in its p1ace or elsewhere. I

The patch 1? is firmly pasted upon or other wise cemented to the back of that portion of the sheet which forms the face R at the j unction of the lips S and T, and serves to strengthen the latter. The notch 0 serves a like purpose by dividing and disseminating any strain at the point where strain would most likely tear the material of which the portfolio is com posed. It also gives increased flexibility to the free edges of the lips S and T, thereby adding facility in opening and closing the portfolio and in its general use. The lips S andT are narrow and pointed at their outer extremities, and serve to hold the contents of the port folio in place when the flap or leaf is open, thus allowing a free and ready inspection of the contents without their removal. The lip T also serves to hold in place the flap or leaf L when the latter is closed, said fiap or, leaf being sufficiently long to extend beneath this lip. The lower edge of the flap or leaf L lies adjacent to and coincident with the edge of the lip S, these edges being so cut in order to fully cover the face of the contents of the portfolio without underlapping or overlapping. After the material is cut and provided with the patch P, as seen in Fig. 1, it is first folded along the line m, as illustrated by Fig. 2. The outer back, N, is then folded in along the line at and pasted upon or otherwise cemented to the inner back, M, when the portfolio will appear by dotted lines in Fig. 1, for forming said fold on the fold-line a, said flap J to be pasted firmly upon or otherwise cemented to the inner baok,M, as a substitute for said outer back.

In this case an index-margin, K K, Fig. 5,'

which may be similar in all respects to said index-margin K, except the formation of the .latter by one edge of said outer back, may be formed separately, as illustrated by Fig. 5, and attached by one edge to said inner back, M, so as to project like the indexmargin K first described.

The projectionof the indx-margimwhether it be integral with said outer back, N, or a distinct part, serves to protect the fold between the inner back, M, and the flap or leaf L, which fold, being the most used, would be liable to give out or fail prematurely if subjected to excessive wear. For this reason, in clipping off the lower index-characters from the index-margin, care should be taken to leave a sufficient width of the latter projecting beyond said fold to protect the latter.

The contents of the portfolio, it will be observed, are held in place, when the flap or leaf L is open, by one corner only, and are fully open to view, save the narrow margin covered by thelips S and T, which form the face R,

while the upper end of the portfolio, or that end thereof opposite the end lip, S, is open, so that articles longer than itself may be placed in the portfolio, and by reason of said flap or leaf L fitting within said side lip, T, only when the portfolio is' closed, and neither underlapping nor overlapping said lip S, articles wider than the portfolio may be received and held in place outside of the flap or leaf L by means of said lips S and T, when said flap or leaf is closed as well as when it is open. The upper end, in the preferred construction above specified, is always open, the portfolios being designed to rest upon their closed lower ends within pigeon-holes or in suitable cases. A deep re-entrant angle in the face R is accommodated by the aid of said strain-distributing notch O and re-enforcing patch P,with added flexibility of the lips S T, and without endangering tearing or necessitating the employment of expensive material for sufficient strength and, finally, by means of the said index-margin K or K K,indexing is facilitated, and at the same time the most used fold of the portfolio is efficiently protected.

Having thus described my improved portfolio, I claim as my invention 1. The combination, in a portfolio, of a back, M, a face, R, united with said back along its lower edge and one vertical edge, and com posed of an end lip anda side lip, and a flap or leaf, L, united with said back along its opposite vertical edge, and having a lower edge which neither underlaps nor overlaps said end lip, substantially as herein specified, for the,

purposes set forth.

2. The combinati'oinwith the back M of the within-described portfolio, of the face R, united. with said back along its lower edge and one vertical edge, and composed of flexible lips S T, forming at their free edges a deep re-entrant angle to expose the contents, and pro vided with the strain-distributing notch O and re-enforcing patch 1, substantially as shown, for the purposes set forth.

3. The combination, in a portfolio, of aback, M, a face, R, united with said back along its lower edge and one vertical edge, a fiap or leaf, L, united with said backalong itsopposite vertical edge, and an index-margin, K, attached to said back M at the same edge as said flap or leaf, and projecting beyond the fold of no the latter so as to protect the same, as, herein set forth.

. JUSTUS NEWTON BROWN. \Vitnesses:

J. A. SAWYER, W. F. SAwYER. 

